Magnesium – eat your green leafie veggies!

Magnesium is responsible for over 300 different biochemical reactions.

Most of us are DEFICIENT in magnesium – twitches, spasm and cramps (restless legs, PMS, tension headaches, arrhythmias etc.) all are telling you to drink less coffee (which depletes magnesium) and eat more green leafie veggies and seeds and nuts – as always, ORGANIC is best for you. For acute needs, we recommend IV magnesium treatment.

Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the human body and is essential to good health. In our bones we have around 50% of total body magnesium but in our blood we have only 1% of magnesium. It’s a small part but very important for people’s health. Magnesium is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. Magnesium helps people in many ways – regulate blood sugar level, keeps the heart rhythm and immune system and keeps bones strong. There is one really interesting role of magnesium – to manage disorders such as hypertension, disease, and diabetes.
Sometimes we called the magnesium “macromineral,” which means that our food must provide us with hundreds of milligrams of magnesium every day. Inside us we have magnesium not only in our bones but in the muscles (25%), and in other cell types and body fluids. But we can’t make magnesium in our body, we provide it through food and water. Magnesium is sometimes regarded as a “smoothie” mineral, since it has the ability to relax our muscles. Our nerves also depend up on magnesium to avoid becoming overexcited.

Functions of magnesium are really important for us. There are functions like: bone function, nerve and muscle relaxation and others. About two thirds of all magnesium in our body is found in our bones. Researchers have discovered that bone magnesium has two very different roles to play in our health – to give the physical structure of the bone and to stay on the surface of the bone. This surface magnesium doesn’t appear to be involved in the bone’s structure, but instead acts as a storage site for magnesium which the body can draw upon in times of poor dietary supply. Magnesium regulates the body’s nerve and muscle tone. In many nerve cells, magnesium serves as a chemical gate blocker – as long as there is enough magnesium around, calcium can’t rush into the nerve cell and activate the nerve. The nerve is kept relaxed. If our diet provides us with too little magnesium, this gate blocking can fail and the nerve cell can become over activated. So, the nerve cells message to the muscles to activate them and muscles become over activated, too. This thing explain how magnesium deficiency can trigger muscle tension, muscle spasms, muscle cramps, and muscle fatigue. Many chemical reactions in the body are provoked by enzymes. They are special proteins that help trigger chemical reactions. Over 300 different enzymes in the body require magnesium in order to function. That is the other important magnesium function – to involve in the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. It helps genes function properly. The metabolic role of magnesium is so diverse that it is difficult to find a body system that is not affected by magnesium deficiency. Our cardiovascular system, nervous system, muscles, kidneys, hormone-secreting glands, liver and brain all rely on magnesium for their metabolic function.

Magnesium in supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias
The use of magnesium as an antiarrhythmic agent in ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias is a matter of an increasing but still controversial discussion during recent years. With regard to the well established importance of magnesium in experimental studies for preserving electrical stability and function of myocardial cells and tissue, the use of magnesium for treating one or the other arrhythmia seems to be a valid concept. In addition, magnesium application represents a physiologic approach, and by this, is simple, cost-effective and safe for the patient. However, when one reviews the available data from controlled studies on the antiarrhythmic effects of magnesium, there are only a few types of cardiac arrhythmias, such as torsade de pointes, digitalis-induced ventricular arrhythmias and ventricular arrhythmias occurring in the presence of heart failure or during the perioperative state, in which the antiarrhythmic benefit of magnesium has been shown and/or established. Particularly in patients with one of these types of cardiac arrhythmias, however, it should be realized that preventing the patient from a magnesium deficit is the first, and the application of magnesium the second best strategy to keep the patient free from cardiac arrhythmias.Zeitschrift fur Kardiologie (Germany), 1996; Source: www.mgwater.com

Effect of intravenous magnesium sulfate on cardiac arrhythmias in critically ill patients with low serum ionized magnesium
Magnesium effects cardiac function, although until the recent development of a new ion selective electrode no method existed for measuring the physiologically active form of magnesium, free ions (iMg2+), in the blood. We investigated the antiarrhythmic effect of magnesium sulfate administered to critically ill patients with cardiac arrhythmias and reduced iMg2+ as determined using the ion-selective electrode. Eight patients with a low iMg2+ level (less than 0.40 mmol/L) were given intravenous magnesium sulfate (group L). Magnesium sulfate was also administered to patients with a normal iMg2+ level (more than 0.40 mmol/L) but who did not respond to conventional antiarrhythmic drugs (group N). Intravenous magnesium sulfate significantly increased the iMg2+ level in patients in group L from 0.35plus or minus0.06 mmol/L (mean plus or minus SD) to 0.54 plus or minus 0.09 mmol/L (p < 0.01), and had an antiarrhythmic effect in 7 of the 8 patients (88%). However, in group N patients, intravenous magnesium sulfate had an antiarrhythmic effect in only 1 of the 6 patients (17%) (p < 0.05 vs group L). These results suggest that intravenous magnesium sulfate may be effective in the acute management of cardiac arrhythmias in patients with a low serum iMg2+ level.Japanese Circulation Journal (Japan), 1996; Source: www.mgwater.com

This web site is neither for advertising nor dispensing of medical advice. Clients who consult with Dr. Weeks receive information in an educational context in an effort to learn about optimizing care with their local health care practitioners. Dr. Weeks formerly practiced on Whidbey Island off the coast of Washington.

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DR’ WEEKS COMMENT: Magnesium is responsible for over 300 different biochemical reactions. Most of us are DEFICIENT in magnesium – twitches, spasm and cramps (restless legs, PMS, tension headaches, arrhythmias etc.) all are telling you to drink less coffee (which depletes magnesium) and eat more green leafie veggies and seeds and nuts – as always,…